The instant invention relates to oil monitoring apparatus and more particularly to such apparatus which monitors oil in water.
In the past, various oil monitoring apparatus have been proposed which incorporate a limited wavelength light source that emits light of the frequency that makes oil fluoresce. A light detector generates a signal responsive to the amount of fluorescence induced in oil which may be present. One such past monitor employs a large housing through which falls a stream of water in which oil is to be detected.
Another such monitor is constructed to be suspended on a cable from a boat for detection of oil under water at depths up to around 1,000 meters. The light detector in the monitor provides a signal on the cable which is related to the amount of fluorescence induced in oil which may be present. The signal is provided to a meter in the boat which indicates the amount of oil that the monitor is detecting.
None of the past monitors are suitable for certain situations in which it is desirable to detect oil in water. For example, none of the past monitors are suitable for real-time monitoring of large underwater areas. One such situation in which real-time monitoring of a large underwater area is desirable is along an underwater oil pipeline.
Oil pipelines may be located on or buried in the floor of a body of water. For example, when oil is produced from an offshore well, a pipeline is typically provided to transport the oil from the well to the shore. It is desirable to monitor the water along the pipeline for the presence of oil to determine whether or not the pipeline is leaking. Neither of the above-discussed oil monitors are suitable for this purpose. The volume of water to be monitored prevents efficient use of the monitor which is designed to be suspended from a boat. The other above-discussed monitor is not useable for monitoring oil under water.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for monitoring the presence of oil in large underwater areas.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a method and apparatus which achieves such monitoring on a real-time basis.
It is a more specific object of the present invention to provide such a method and apparatus in which a computer stores real-time information relating to the amount of oil in the water being monitored.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a method and apparatus which performs the monitoring in a substantially automatic fashion.
The instant invention includes a plurality of oil sensors each of which is contained in a cylindrical housing. The sensors are of the type having a limited wavelength light source for inducing fluorescence from oil which may be present. A light detector detects any resulting fluorescence. Each sensor is maintained under water in a selected position. Each of the sensors is connected to a computer which receives and stores information generated by each light detector to provide a real-time map of the amount of oil in the monitored water.
These and other objects and attendant advantages of the invention will become more fully apparent as the following detailed description is read in view of the accompanying drawings.